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Dysbiosis/Gas/Constipation - Could this

Could this be caused by fore/hindmilk imbalance?

Hello,

I am hoping you can help me with a somewhat confusing situation. I have two children - one who just turned 2 and the other who is 3 months old. For the last two years, give or take a few months, we have been consumed with figuring out what has been causing stomach troubles in our 2 year old. It started off as gas, then when he was about 4 months old, he would have a BM every week or so. The older he got, the more difficult it became for him to pass stools. There would be times we would both sit on the floor crying because he was in so much pain. Sometimes suppositories worked, sometimes they didn't. Sometimes karo syrup worked, sometimes it didn't. Up until he was about 6 months old, his diet was 90% breast milk, 10% formula (cow's milk then eventually soy). After realizing that our pediatrician wasn't helpful at all we decided to assign a naturopathic doctor as his primary care doctor. She advised us to put him on a dairy-free diet, which we did (at this point he was off breast milk and formula and was drinking coconut milk). After several months, we realized that a dairy-intolerance was not the culprit as his bm's were still very irregular and he was always constipated. (He drinks a ton of fluid throughout the day.) So, we stopped the dairy-free diet, kept him on coconut milk (he won't drink cow's milk or eat cheese or anything like that....) and used Miralax, as needed. (He has also been given high quality cod liver oil and probiotics every night.) Right around this time his doctor ran a stool sample (I think it was the CDSA 2.0) which showed a PH imbalance and dysbiosis. She recommended using Grapefruit seed extract. Today, things seem to be working themselves out for him. I wouldn't say that he's regular but he is not dealing with constipation or anything like that anymore.

Now, onto our 3 month old. Just like our 2 year old, his diet is almost all breast milk with the exception of maybe 4oz a day of formula while he is at daycare - I've not been able to pump enough of a supply to keep him exclusively breastfed. When he was a newborn he was constantly looking to eat so he was always fed on demand. It never seemed like he was satisfied so when he was ~4 weeks old, I tried giving him 2 oz of formula after I breast fed him. He seemed full and satisfied. We rarely gave him formula unless he seemed unsatisfied. He wasn't getting formula daily until about 3 weeks ago when he started at daycare. Anyway, his awful gas started BEFORE the formula was introduced so my guess is that the formula has nothing to do with it. The other trouble is that for the last 5 weeks or so, he has only had 3 bm's - all of which were helped along from using a suppository. If his diet was all breast milk (and he wasn't so gassy) I wouldn't be as concerned but he is also drinking formula.

I've been working with the same naturopath and she has suggested dairy avoidance for both of us along with a high quality probiotic. I haven't tried it just yet - and I'm wondering if dairy is even the issue.

My reason for writing today is to ask if you think that, given the history of both children, do you think that this could be a problem with my breast milk? Meaning - could I be producing too much foremilk and not enough hind milk? Could this have caused long-term effects in our 2 year old after we had stopped breast feeding (constipation, dysbiosis)? Could this be what is causing the awful gas in our 3 month old? (Is it the formula that is keeping him from having a BM more regularly?)

I look forward to your response. I have done so much research on my own but I really need the thoughts from someone who has more experience.

Re: Dysbiosis/Gas/Constipation - Could t

I think that as nursing mommies, we tend to take responsibility for a lot of things that are not our faults. Digestive issues in a baby or toddler are some of the hardest to shrug off, since we are providing all or most of the input to those systems. But this is one where I think you have to let go of the feeling that you are causing your kids' issues. Foremilk/hindmilk imbalance can cause gassiness, but as far as I can tell, imbalance is exclusively a product of milk oversupply. If you don't have oversupply, you do not have an imbalance- and since you're having trouble pumping enough to cover your baby's needs, oversupply is probably out of the question.